ICYMI

In Blow to Open Internet, Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down Biden FCC's Net Neutrality Rules

The ruling creates a "dangerous regulatory gap that leaves consumers vulnerable and gives broadband providers unchecked power over Americans’ internet access," said one advocate.


Proponents of an open and unregulated internet attend a news conference at the U.S. Capitol February 27, 2018 in Washington, D.C.
(Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Julia Conley
Jan 02, 2025
COMMON DREAMS


Citing last year's U.S. Supreme Court decision that stripped federal agencies of their regulatory powers, an all-Republican panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit on Thursday ruled that the Federal Communications Commission lacks the authority to reinstate net neutrality rules.

The panel ruled that broadband is an "information service" instead of a "telecommunications service," which is more heavily regulated under the Communications Act, and said the FCC did not have the authority to prohibit telecommunications companies from blocking or throttling internet content and creating "fast lanes" for certain web companies that pay a fee.

Last April the FCC voted to reinstate net neutrality rules, which were first introduced under the Obama administration but were repealed by former Republican FCC Chair Ajit Pai, who was appointed by President-elect Donald Trump.


The ruling cited by the 6th Circuit panel was Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which overturned the so-called Chevron doctrine last year. Under the decades-old legal precedent, judges have typically deferred to federal agencies' reasonable interpretation of a law if Congress has not specifically addressed an issue.

"Applying Loper Bright means we can end the FCC's vacillations" between imposing and repealing net neutrality rules, said the judges on Thursday.




The ruling serves as "a reminder that agencies are going to be neutered across any and all industries," said one observer.


John Bergmayer, legal director for the free expression and digital rights group Public Knowledge, said that by "rejecting the FCC's authority to classify broadband as a telecommunications service, the court has ignored decades of precedent and fundamentally misunderstood both the technical realities of how broadband works and Congress' clear intent in the Communications Act."

The ruling creates a "dangerous regulatory gap that leaves consumers vulnerable and gives broadband providers unchecked power over Americans’ internet access," added Bergmayer. The decision could harm the FCC's ability to protect against everything from broadband privacy violations to threats to universal service programs for low-income and rural households.

Matt Wood, vice president of policy and general counsel for another media justice group, Free Press, said the ruling was "just plainly wrong at every level of analysis."

"In April, the FCC issued an order that properly restored the agency's congressionally granted oversight authority to protect people from any [internet service provider] discrimination and manipulation. That commonsense FCC order tried to ensure that the companies providing America with the essential communications service of this century don't get to operate free from any real oversight," said Wood.

Companies and industry groups that sued over the regulations, including the Ohio Telecom Association, "baselessly claim that any regulation will hurt their bottom line," Wood added. "Treating broadband like a common-carrier service does nothing to dampen or dissuade private investment in this crucial infrastructure. And the question for any court interpreting the Communications Act must be what is in the public's best interest, not just one industry sector's financial interests."

The groups, along with FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, called on Congress to take legislative action to protect internet users and small web businesses from discrimination.

"Consumers across the country have told us again and again that they want an internet that is fast, open, and fair. With this decision it is clear that Congress now needs to heed their call, take up the charge for net neutrality, and put open internet principles in federal law," Rosenworcel said.

Congress must "clarify the FCC's authority—and responsibility—to protect the Open Internet and broadband users," said Bergmayer.

Bergmayer also noted that the ruling leaves states' ability to enforce their own net neutrality laws in place, and said the group "will continue to look to states and local governments to help lead on broadband policy."

  BANKS BEHAVING BADILY  

Morgan Stanley Latest Wall Street Giant to Ditch Net-Zero Coalition

Earlier this week, Bank of America and Citigroup also said they were leaving the Net-Zero Banking Alliance.

Morgan Stanley offices at Canary Wharf financial district on 5th November 2024 in London, United Kingdom.
(photo: Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images)

Eloise Goldsmith
Jan 02, 2025

COMMON DREAMS

On Thursday, the Wall Street titan Morgan Stanley became the latest financial institution to leave the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, a United Nations-convened group of banks committed to "aligning their lending, investment, and capital markets activities with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050."

The defections keep piling up. Earlier this week, Bank of America and Citigroup said they were leaving the alliance, and earlier in December Goldman Sachs Group and Wells Fargo announced they were doing the same.



“We will continue to report on our progress as we work towards our 2030 interim financed-emissions targets,” Morgan Stanley toldBloomberg in an email.

While Morgan Stanley didn't offer an explanation for the exit, according to Reuters, financial firms have repeatedly found themselves in the crosshairs of some members of the GOP who argue that corporate efforts to limit fossil fuels run afoul of antitrust law.

Last summer, the Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee published a report accusing financial institutions colluding to impose "radical environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals on American companies." Their probe was largely focused on another climate group, Climate Action 100+, which is made up of financial institutions who strive to engage companies they invest in on climate issues. That coalition has also experienced a number of defections.

In December, 11 GOP-led states sued three asset managers in federal court, arguing that the firms had "artificially constrained the supply of coal, significantly diminished competition in the markets for coal, increased energy prices for American consumers, and produced cartel-level profits" for the firms in violation of antitrust law.

Despite the stated goals of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, Morgan Stanley and other firms who are a part of the alliance have remained a major financial life lines for fossil fuel companies.

According to a report published by a group of NGOs in 2023, 56 of the largest banks in the Net-Zero Banking Alliance—including Morgan Stanley—have provided nearly $270 billion in the form of loans and underwriting to more than 100 "major fossil fuel expanders," from Saudi Aramco to ExxonMobil to Shell.

Aid Coalition Warns Millions of Civilians at Risk as Israel and US Bomb Yemen

"It is civilians in Yemen who pay the ultimate costs," humanitarian groups warned following a flurry of airstrikes by Israel and the United States.


Damage is pictured at Sana'a International Airport following an Israeli airstrike on December 27, 2024.
Photo by Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu via Getty Images

Jake Johnson
Jan 01, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

Dozens of humanitarian aid groups warned Tuesday that millions of Yemeni civilians are in danger as Israel and the United States carry out new airstrikes on the impoverished country, which is already ravaged by years of sustained attacks from a U.S.-backed Saudi-led coalition.

The aid groups said in a joint statement that they are "deeply concerned about the airstrikes on critical civilian infrastructure, including Sanaa International Airport, power stations in Sanaa and Hodeidah Governorates, and seaports in and near Hodeidah"—a reference to Israeli strikes on December 26.

"These attacks on vital infrastructure serve as a stark reminder of the importance of respecting international humanitarian law, particularly the need to protect critical civilian air and maritime gateways that are indispensable to the survival of millions of Yemenis," the groups said, noting that the airport Israel targeted is "a much-needed delivery point for humanitarian aid in a country where around half of the population (anticipated to rise from 18 million to 19.5 million people in 2025) are in need of assistance—77% of whom are women and children."

"We call on all actors to adhere to international humanitarian law, to ensure the protection of civilian infrastructure that provide critical essential services indispensable for the survival of millions of civilians in Yemen. The consequences of attacks on civilian facilities will be severe and long-lasting for Yemeni civilians, already suffering exhaustion from a decade-long conflict," the groups continued. "We further urge every actor to de-escalate, recognizing that it is civilians in Yemen who pay the ultimate costs."

The coalition's statement came on the same day the U.S. military carried out airstrikes on Yemen, characterizing the attacks as part of an "effort to degrade Iran-backed Houthi efforts to threaten regional partners and military and merchant vessels in the region."

Some progressive members of the U.S. Congress have argued that the Biden administration's repeated attacks on Yemen without congressional authorization are illegal. U.S. President Joe Biden admitted last January that American airstrikes in Yemen have not successfully deterred Houthi rebels from attacking vessels in the Red Sea—but said the strikes would continue regardless.

Israel, for its part, pledged to inflict a "miserable fate" on the Houthis in response to the group's recent drone and ballistic missile attacks.

Mohammed Abdulsalam, a spokesperson for the Houthis, said Tuesday that the latest flurry of U.S. strikes represent "a blatant violation of the sovereignty of an independent state, and blatant support for Israel to encourage it to continue its crimes of genocide against the people of Gaza."

Drop Sitereported that across Yemen, people view the U.S. and Israeli attacks "as primarily harming civilians," echoing the concerns of aid groups.

"This attack harms no one but the people and their livelihoods," said Hodeidah resident Muhammad Alwi.

Now 'Things Get Much Worse': Palestinian Rights Movement Under Threat as Trump Returns

"This administration will likely be coming very quickly to try to take down the Palestinian rights movement," said a Jewish Voice for Peace Action leader.


Demonstrators march toward the Trump International Hotel & Tower demanding an end to Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip after the presidential election in Chicago, Illinois, on November 6, 2024.
(Photo: Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Jessica Corbett
Jan 02, 2025
CPMMPN DREAMS

Victims of violence by U.S.-armed Israeli forces and advocates for Palestinian rights across the United States are sounding the alarm over Republican President-elect Donald Trump's looming return to the White House and GOP control of Congress.

President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and the divided 118th Congress have faced intense criticism for giving Israel diplomatic and weapons support to kill at least 45,581 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip over the past 15 months and attack Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. The outgoing Democratic administration and lawmakers have also faced backlash for their response to anti-war protests, particularly on U.S. university campuses, some of which were met with police brutality.

However, recent reporting in the United States and Israel has highlighted fear about promises from Trump and his Republican Party that, as the Israeli newspaper Haaretzput it last week, a "quick and complete" crackdown "on pro-Palestinian sentiment in America will be a defining factor of his administration's early days."

"The Palestinian rights movement is very clear-eyed in understanding that it is very likely that this Trump administration will mean that things get much worse for Palestinians."

Beth Miller, political director of the advocacy group Jewish Voice for Peace Action, toldPolitico on Wednesday that "the Palestinian rights movement is very clear-eyed in understanding that it is very likely that this Trump administration will mean that things get much worse for Palestinians."

"This administration will likely be coming very quickly to try to take down the Palestinian rights movement," Miller added.

Leaders with the Adalah Justice Project and Arab American Institute also noted concerns about efforts to silence advocates and even dismantle organizations—some of which are already underway. In November, 15 House Democrats joined all but one Republican in voting for the so-called Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act (H.R. 9495).

The legislation would enable the U.S. Treasury Department to revoke the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit it deems a "terrorist-supporting organization" without due process. Advocates for various causes have condemned what they call the "nonprofit killer bill."

Although H.R. 9495 never made it through the Democrat-held Senate, Republicans are set to take over the chamber on Friday. The GOP will also retain control of the House, which during this session has repeatedly voted to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism, or discrimination against Jews.

In addition to likely facing a new wave of legislative attacks—potentially spearheaded by GOP leaders like incoming House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast (R-Fla.), a U.S. military veteran who has volunteered with the Israel Defense Forces and denied the existence of "innocent Palestinian civilians"—rights advocates in the United States could be targeted by key officials in the next Trump administration.

As Haaretz recently detailed, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, Trump's second choice to lead the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ); Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), his nominee for secretary of state; and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), his candidate for ambassador to the United Nations, have expressed support for deporting pro-Palestinian protesters who have student visas.

Although former federal prosecutor Kash Patel, Trump's pick to direct the Federal Bureau of Investigation, "doesn't have much of a record on campus protests, he is most notorious for his desire to remove any of Trump's critics and doubters from the national security apparatus," the newspaper noted. "Further, Patel's experience as the National Security Council's senior director of counterterrorism during Trump's first term positions him to crack down on pro-Palestinian sympathizers."



Haaretz also highlighted comments from Harmeet Dhillon, Trump's pick to lead the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, and Linda McMahon, his nominee for education secretary, as well as Project Esther: A National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism—an October proposal from the Heritage Foundation, the right-wing think tank that is also behind the sweeping Project 2025 policy agenda.

"The virulently anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and anti-American groups comprising the so-called pro-Palestinian movement inside the United States are exclusively pro-Palestine and—more so—pro-Hamas," states the Project Esther report. "They are part of a highly organized, global Hamas Support Network (HSN) and therefore effectively a terrorist support network."

Two co-chairs of the Heritage-backed National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, James Carafano and Ellie Cohanim, wrote earlier this week at the Washington Examiner that "Project Esther is a blueprint to save the U.S. from those utilizing antisemitism to destroy it."

"The objective is to dismantle the infrastructure by denying it the resources required for its antisemitic activity," they argued. "Targeting the groups and organizations that receive the funding and deploy it to their grassroots followers who engage in antisemitic activity, the useful idiots we see on college campuses, for example, will divorce the means from the opportunity, thereby rendering these activists incapable of threatening U.S. citizens."

Posting the piece on X—the social media platform owned by billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk—Carafano declared that "when Donald Trump starts to take on the global intifada he will need partners. We will need to be there."

Outrage Over Global 'Silence' as Israel Continues Ethnic Cleansing in Gaza

"History will reveal those who spoke out against this genocide, and those who did not," said one rights group.

A Palestinian medic carries an injured child from an ambulance to Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital for treatment following an Israeli attack on the Shuja'iyya neighborhood in Gaza City, Gaza on January 1, 2025.
(Photo: Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Julia Conley
Jan 02, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

A pediatrician working in Gaza was among those on Thursday who condemned "how deaf the world has become to repeated cries" from people in the enclave as Israel continues its assault and humanitarian aid blockade, which has plunged parts of Gaza into famine conditions, according to experts.

"I'm watching children die in every possible way whether it's violence, cold, hunger, disease—all directly as a consequence of a carefully orchestrated Israeli military campaign that has been enabled by the United States and other countries that are turning a deaf ear and blind eye," Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan toldAl Jazeera.

At least seven infants have died of hypothermia in the enclave in recent days, their families among 1.9 million people who have been forcibly displaced by Israel's bombardment of Gaza. With 92% of housing units destroyed or damaged, people across Gaza have resorted to living in makeshift tents that don't protect them from wind, heavy rain, and cold nighttime temperatures.

"I struggle for words to describe how horrific the situation has become and how deaf the world has become to repeated cries from humanitarian workers, and mostly from Gazans themselves," said Haj-Hassan. "They have documented on a daily basis their own genocide and have been killed for doing so."

Paula Gil, president of the Spanish chapter of Doctors Without Borders or Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), said Israel's U.S.-backed assault has reduced Gaza to "a death trap."

"This does not happen in a vacuum. The hypocrisy and complicity of Israel's allies is allowing the social fabric of Gaza to be destroyed with impunity."

"Families are surviving in makeshift shelters made of wood, plastic, and mattresses," she told Al Jazeera. "Now the cold and the storms have arrived. How will they face the winter in these conditions?"

Haj-Hassan's and Gil's comments came as Israel bombed the coastal area of al-Mawasi, a so-called "humanitarian zone" that has nevertheless been attacked by the Israel Defense Forces numerous times. At least 63 Palestinians were killed in attacks across Gaza on Thursday, including 12 in al-Mawasi.

A report by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) on Wednesday showed that around 100,000 Gaza residents have left the enclave since Israel began its assault in October 2023 and more than 45,000 people have been killed, while 10,000 are missing and presumed dead.

Those statistics mean that the population of Gaza is down 6% since Israel's current escalation started.

Israel, said the PCBS, has "raged a brutal aggression against Gaza targeting all kinds of life there; humans, buildings, and vital infrastructure... Entire families were erased from the civil register. There are catastrophic human and material losses."

Human rights groups have said Israel's relentless bombardment of Gaza and its recent ground offensive in northern Gaza—where Israeli military leaders seek to execute the so-called Generals' Plan to forcibly displace everyone in the area and kill anyone who remains through starvation or other means—amounts to ethnic cleansing.

"As the world watches in silence, the far-right government of indicted war criminal [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu is carrying out its intentional campaign of slaughter, mass destruction, forced starvation, and ethnic cleansing in Gaza," said the Council on American Islamic Relations. "History will reveal those who spoke out against this genocide, and those who did not."

The U.S. government—the largest international funder of the Israel Defense Forces, has continued to give political and material support to Israel as it has bombarded and blockaded Gaza, making more than 100 weapons transfers to the Israeli government.


"This does not happen in a vacuum," said Gil. "The hypocrisy and complicity of Israel's allies is allowing the social fabric of Gaza to be destroyed with impunity... There is no future. There is no hope. In Gaza, humanity is being destroyed and we cannot look away."

Gaza hospital chief held by Israel becomes face of crumbling healthcare

Gaza Strip (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Israel's raid on a major Gaza hospital and the arrest of its director over alleged links to Hamas have drawn global attention to the war-ravaged territory's crumbling healthcare system.

Kamal Adwan hospital chief, Hossam Abu Safiyeh, checking an injured child on October 24, 2024 amid the ongoing war in Gaza © - / AFP

 31/12/2024 - 

For weeks, as fighting escalated around the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza's Beit Lahia area, its head Hossam Abu Safiyeh made desperate appeals to the international community to intervene and stop the violence "before it is too late".

In the early hours of Friday, the Israeli military launched a major raid on the hospital, describing it as "one of the largest operations" it had conducted since the war in Gaza broke out in October last year.

The raid ended a day later, with the military announcing that it killed more than 20 militants and arrested over 240, including Abu Safiyeh on suspicion of "being a Hamas operative".

Since then, the whereabouts of the 51-year-old paediatrician have been unknown.

The World Health Organisation has said Kamal Adwan hospital has been out of service ever since, a massive blow to the healthcare system in northern Gaza, where tens of thousands live under ongoing Israeli bombardment.

His family believes he is being detained at the Sde Teiman military base in the Negev desert, near Gaza.

'Deadly attacks'

"This detention centre is notorious for the mistreatment of prisoners," his son, Idris Abu Safiyeh, said in a video message on Monday evening.

"We have received testimonies from released detainees who reported that he was subjected to humiliation and abuse," he said. "He was reportedly forced to strip".

Despite repeated attempts by AFP, the Israeli military has declined to specify Abu Safiyeh's location. It has also not responded to allegations of his abuse.

Several other medical staff of Kamal Adwan Hospital were detained in the raid as well.

"There is no justification for these arrests other than a desire to destroy the healthcare system," Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza's civil defence agency, told AFP. He described the situation as "catastrophic and tragic."

On Tuesday, a United Nations report revealed that Israeli strikes on and near hospitals in Gaza have led to the near total collapse of the healthcare system in the Palestinian territory of 2.4 million people.

"Israel's pattern of deadly attacks on and near hospitals in Gaza, and associated combat, pushed the healthcare system to the brink of total collapse, with catastrophic effect on Palestinians' access to health and medical care," the UN human rights office said in a statement.

'Hero in a white robe'

Israeli officials have repeatedly accused Hamas of using the territory's hospitals as command and control centres for launching attacks against Israeli forces.

Abu Safiyeh's family has urged the international community to pressure Israel for his prompt release -- and their message has resonated.

The World Health Organisation led by its chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has called for the "immediate release" of the hospital director.

Rights group Amnesty International has echoed the call, saying Abu Safiyeh had been the "voice of Gaza's decimated health sector".

Healthcare professionals across the world have also urged for his release, rallying on social media under the hashtag #FreeDrHussamAbuSafiya.

He was praised as a "hero in a white robe" in several social media posts for continuing his work amid an intense Israeli military campaign in northern Gaza.

Since October 6, Israeli forces have intensified their land and sea assault on northern Gaza, saying it was aimed at preventing Hamas from regrouping there.

According to the US-based NGO MedGlobal, which employs him, Abu Safiyeh lost a teenage son in an Israeli air strike in late October, while he himself was injured in the leg days later.

From a hospital bed, he, however, declared in a video that the injury would not deter him from fulfilling his mission, "whatever the cost".

© 2024 AFP

Far-Right Israeli Lawmakers Demand 'Complete Cleansing' of Northern Gaza

The Knesset members are urging the Israeli military to destroy all sources of water, food, and energy—and to kill "anyone not flying a white flag of surrender." 

THEY HAVE KILLED THEIR OWN WAVING A WHITE FLAG

A Palestinian child plays amid the rubble of destroyed buildings at the Bureij refugee camp in Gaza, Palestine on January 2, 2025.
(Photo: Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images)

Brett Wilkins
Jan 03, 2025

At least seven far-right members of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, are calling on the country's defense minister to order the total destruction of northern Gaza's food, water, and energy sources—most of which have already been obliterated by 15 months of relentless attacks—and the killing of any Palestinian who isn't clearly surrendering to the attackers.

In a letter to Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz dated December 31, the lawmakers assert that the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) campaign to forcibly expel Palestinians from northern Gaza—which critics have called ethnic cleansing—"isn't being done properly" and is not "achieving the war objectives as defined by the government, which is the dismantling of Hamas' governing and military capabilities."

According to a translation by international humanitarian law expert Itay Epshtain on Thursday, the letter calls on the IDF to:Destroy all energy sources including fuel, solar systems, generators, and power lines;
Destroy all food sources including warehouses, water, and water pumps; and
Lay siege and remotely kill everyone not flying a white flag of surrender.

That last demand apparently includes men, women, and children. IDF troops would then "enter gradually for a complete cleansing of the enemy's nests," according to the letter.




Lawmakers who signed the letter and their party affiliations include: Avraham Bezalel (Shas), Amit Halevi (Likud), Limor Son Har-Melech (Jewish Power), Osher Shkalim (Likud), Zvi Sukkot and Ohad Tal (Religious Zionism), and Nissim Vaturi (Likud).

Vaturi, the deputy Knesset speaker, previously called for Gaza to be "wiped off the face of the Earth" and argued for Israel to "stop being humane" and "burn Gaza now," because "there are no innocents there."

Notably, the lawmakers' letter does not mention anything about freeing the more than 60 hostages believed to be alive and imprisoned by Hamas and possibly other groups in Gaza.

As Israeli journalist Bar Peleg reported Friday from the Jabalia refugee camp:
When the soldiers and officers in Jabalia are asked about their mission, the answer is destroying Hamas and its infrastructure, until the last terrorist is laid to rest. When they are asked, "And what about the hostages?" One soldier answered, "That concerns us, like it does everyone, but it isn't a part of our operational considerations."

Northern Gaza is already in ruins. As Peleg noted, "not a single habitable building remains" in Jabalia. Nearly all homes, hospitals, schools, and other infrastructure have been destroyed or damaged.

"Look at the extent of the destruction and annihilation here," one IDF officer said. "No one has done this before."

An IDF officer recently toldHaaretz that one commander, Brig. Gen. Yehuda Vach, seeks to personally execute the so-called Generals' Plan—a blueprint for the starvation and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from northern Gaza—by besieging and expelling 250,000 Palestinians from the area. United Nations officials estimate that more than 100,000 Palestinians have been forced from northern Gaza, even as the IDF says it disavows the Generals' Plan.

IDF troops, Palestinian witnesses, international medical volunteers, and others have described alleged war crimes including the indiscriminate killings of Gazans of all ages throughout the embattled strip.

Israel's "complete siege" of Gaza has also caused the sickening and starvation of hundreds of thousands of Gazans. At least dozens of children and babies have died of malnutrition or hypothermia.


Israeli policies and actions, as well as written and spoken calls for the destruction of Gaza and its people, have been presented as evidence in the South African-led genocide case against Israel currently before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister who ordered the siege of Gaza, are fugitives from the International Criminal Court, which in November issued arrest warrants for the pair and Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri.

Israel's 455-day bombardment, invasion, and siege of Gaza has left at least 165,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing, according to officials there.

UNRWA Preparing to Shutter Gaza, West Bank Operations Over Israeli Laws

"The laws would cripple the humanitarian response in Gaza and deprive millions of Palestine refugees of essential services in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem," said the agency's leader.

An UNRWA truck transports aid for Palestinians during a tour by the organisation's senior emergency officer in Khan Yunis on December 3, 2024, amid the continuing war between Israel and Hamas.
(Photo: BASHAR TALEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Eloise Goldsmith
Jan 03, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, a crucial source of food, water, medicine, and more for Palestinians, is preparing to shut down its offices in the West Bank and Gaza in response to two laws passed by the Israeli parliament that, if enforced, will effectively prevent the UNRWA from operating in those locations.

The laws were passed in October and are set to go into effect at the end of January.

The New York Timesreported Thursday that U.N. officials say they are preparing to wind down UNRWA operations in both locations, a move that Jamie McGoldrick, who oversaw the U.N. humanitarian operation across Gaza and the West Bank until April, told the Times "would be a massive impact on an already catastrophic situation."

"If that is what the Israeli intention is—to remove any ability for us to save lives—you have to question what is the thinking and what is the end goal?" McGoldrick added.

UNRWA and Israel have long had a contentious relationship, but tensions escalated after Israel accused some of the agency's employees of taking part in Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. This prompted the U.S.—the largest international funder of the agency, which relies almost entirely on voluntary contributions from donor states—to suspend funding for UNRWA last January. Congress later passed a bill prohibiting UNRWA funding through at least March 2025.

In October, the Israeli parliament passed two bills targeting UNRWA— one that mandates UNRWA "will not operate any missions, won't provide any service, and won't hold any activity—directly or indirectly—in the sovereign territory of the state of Israel," and a second under which the Israeli agency that handles humanitarian issues, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, will have to cut off contact with UNRWA.

"The laws would cripple the humanitarian response in Gaza and deprive millions of Palestine refugees of essential services in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem," wrote Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, in an opinion piece for The Guardian published in mid-December.




UNRWA has provided support to Palestinians for decades and been the backbone of aid response in Gaza since Israel's cataclysmic military campaign on the enclave began in October 2023. It is the largest aid organization operating in the Palestinian territories, according to the Wall Street Journal.

One Palestinian woman in the West Bank told the paper that halting UNRWA's operations is "life or death."

Kenneth Roth, the former the executive director of Human Rights Watch, reacted to this quote on social media Friday, writing that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "picks death (for Palestinians)."

Biden Greenlights 'Racist' and 'Sociopathic' $8B Arms Sale to Israel

Multiple human rights organizations and international bodies have accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza


People demonstrate outside the U.S. Consulate in Tel Aviv, Israel, on November 20, 2024, ahead of a vote by the U.S. Senate on legislation to block offensive U.S. weapons sales to Israel.
Photo by Saeed Qaq/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Common Dreams Staff
Jan 04, 2025

The administration of US President Joe Biden announced on Saturday an arms sale to Israel valued at $8 billion, just ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House.

Biden has repeatedly rejected calls to suspend military backing for Israel because of the number of civilians killed during the war in Gaza. Israel has killed more than 45,000 people in Gaza, primarily women and children.

The sale includes medium-range air-to-air missiles, 155mm projectile artillery shells for long-range targeting, Hellfire AGM-114 missiles, 500-pound bombs, and more.

Human rights groups, former State Department officials, and Democratic lawmakers have urged the Biden administration to halt arms sales to Israel, citing violations of US laws, including the Leahy Law, as well as international laws and human rights.

The Leahy Law, named after former Sen. Patrick Leahy, requires the US to withhold military assistance from foreign military or law enforcement units if there is credible evidence of human rights violations.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s most significant Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called Biden’s new $8 billion arms deal “racist” and “sociopathic.”

Multiple human rights organizations and international bodies have accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for committing war crimes.

The US is, by far, the biggest supplier of weapons to Israel, having helped it build one of the most technologically sophisticated militaries in the world.

CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said on Saturday:

“We strongly condemn the Biden administration for its unbelievable and criminal decision to send another $8 billion worth of American weapons to the government of indicted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu instead of using American leverage to force an end to the genocide in Gaza.

“Only racists who do not view people of color as equally human, and sociopaths who delight in funding mass slaughter, could send Netanyahu even more bombs while his government openly kidnaps doctors, destroys hospitals, and exterminates the last survivors in northern Gaza.

“If President Biden is actually the person who approved this new $8 billion arms sale, then he is a war criminal who belongs in a cell at The Hague alongside Netanyahu. But if Antony Blinken, Brett McGurk, Jake Sullivan, and other aides are making these unconscionable decisions as shadow presidents, then anyone with a conscience in the administration should speak up now about their abuses of power.”

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the US accounted for 69% of Israel's imports of major conventional arms between 2019 and 2023.

On the other hand, incoming President-elect Donald Trump has also pledged unwavering support for Israel and has never committed to supporting an independent Palestinian state.

 

    

GLOBAL GENERAL STRIKE

Health Workers Plan Global Day of Action to Demand 'End to the Genocide in Gaza'

"After witnessing 15 months of relentless violence and destruction in Gaza, we can no longer carry on as if everything is normal," said organizer Doctors Against Genocide.

Members of Doctors Against Genocide and allies protest Israel's assault on Gaza, in Washington, D.C. on June 8 2024.
(Photo: Joe Flood/flickr/cc)

Brett Wilkins
Jan 03, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

As Israel's 15-month annihilation of Gaza continues with intensified attacks on medical infrastructure and workers, an international coalition of advocacy groups is planning a #SickFromGenocide global day of action on Monday "to take a stand against the targeted attacks on healthcare."

Organizer Doctors Against Genocide (DAG) and co-sponsors including Healthcare Workers for Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement, Do No Harm Coalition, Labor for Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council, and others are calling on healthcare workers around the world to take a day of mental health leave "to reflect on the immense moral injury of funding a genocide and engage the most important aspect of treatment: publicly demanding an end to the genocide in Gaza."

Monday's day of action is set to include a "Sick From Genocide" global vigil and pop-up clinics in cities across the United States, whose government gives Israel billions of dollars in weapons support each year.


"For 15 months, we have watched in horror as children and families have been obliterated by unrelenting attacks," DAG said in a statement Friday. "Hospitals, the bedrock of lifesaving care, have been turned into death traps. The recent bombing and burning of Kamal Adwan Hospitaland the arrest of our colleague, the pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya,exemplify the deliberate targeting of healthcare workers and facilities—tactics designed to accelerate the annihilation and forced displacement of the Palestinian people in Gaza."

DAG member Dr. Rupa Marya—a University of California, San Francisco professor of medicine who's currently on paid suspension after questioning how to manage students coming to U.S. schools from a zone with an active genocide where military service is mandatory—told Common Dreams this week that healthcare professionals should "take a mental health break to grieve and take care of ourselves. Let's call in sick on January 6th. We are sick from genocide."

"We are burned out from 15 months of these images and our humanity being denied in our places of work, where we are being silenced, we are being framed as 'haters' for standing against a genocide," she advised.

"What we're asking people to do, is get your friends together, and start a pop-up clinic, set up a free clinic in the street," Marya continued. "Are other people sick from genocide? Come, we'll take care of you. Do people need free healthcare? Come, we'll take care of you."

"We need to demand that our institutions of care cut off relationships with a nation that is actively committing genocide," she asserted. "We need to demand that the United States stop sending arms to Israel. We send billions and billions of dollars to Israel to arm itself while we have people not getting healthcare in the United States."

"We have record numbers of people in the streets, many of them who have lost their homes because the most common cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States is medical debt," Marya noted. "So we can't even fund our own healthcare here, while we're sending money to Israel, where they have universal healthcare."

"Let's start showing people what a different healthcare system would look like based in a moral commitment to care, based on our love for our communities, and based on justice," she said. "That is the healthcare system that we need."

"Why are we spending our money destroying another people's healthcare when we can use that money to be taking care of our own here?"

Referring to last month's assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, Marya added: "And if you don't believe me, look what happened to that CEO. We don't want to see political violence here. We don't want people to have to get murdered for us to understand how desperate people are for healthcare."

"So," she asked, "why are we spending our money destroying another people's healthcare when we can use that money to be taking care of our own here?"

Two Protesters Self-Immolate Over Bhopal Toxic Waste Plan in India

The plan to remove more than 370 tons of toxic waste from Bhopal and transport it to another city has been denounced as a "farce and greenwashing publicity stunt."


A man pours liquid on himself before being set on fire in an apparent self-immolation protest in Pithampur, India on January 3, 2025.
(Photo: Brajesh Rajput/x)

Julia Conley
Jan 03, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

After more than 370 tons of hazardous waste from the deadliest industrial disaster in history arrived in the town of Pithampur in central India, two men were filmed in the city on Friday dousing themselves in liquid before they were set on fire in an apparent self-immolation protest.

The men poured the flammable liquid on themselves in a crowd of protesters and were then set on fire by another demonstrator.

They were taken to a hospital after the self-immolation and are "safe now," the administrative head of Dhar district, where Pithampur is located, told Agence France-Presse.

Note: The below video contains graphic images.




The protest took place 40 years and one month after a chemical disaster at a factory owned by the American company Union Carbide in Bhopal.


On December 2, 1984, a tank storing the toxic chemical methyl isocyanate, which Union Carbide used to produce pesticides, shattered from its concrete casing—allowing about 40 tons of the deadly gas to drift across the city of more than 2 million people.

The disaster killed roughly 3,500 people in the following days from direct exposure to the poisonous chemical, and 25,000 people are estimated to have died overall as the contamination has been linked to deadly illnesses including cancers, lung disease, and kidney disease.

Large numbers of babies have been born with severe disabilities, to parents affected by the gas leak, and a high rate of stillbirths in the area has been reported.


But Union Carbide—now owned by Dow Chemical—and the Indian government have never carried out an operation to remove all the contamination from Bhopal's groundwater, which has been found to contain levels of carcinogenic chemicals that were 50 times higher than what's accepted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Dow Chemical has denied liability for the accident, citing a 1989 settlement with the Indian government. The deal also gave about $500 to each person identified as a victim at the time—but nothing was set aside for most people who later developed health problems.

Last month, on the 40th anniversary of the disaster, the Madhya Pradesh high court ordered the government to begin removing the toxic waste and a plan was devised for the transport of more than 370 tons of sealed waste, which would be taken to a plant in Pithampur—150 miles away—and incinerated.

The plan has garnered condemnation from both Pithampur residents and people in Bhopal as well as campaigners who have demanded justice for Bhopal for decades.

The incineration is expected to take six months and to create nearly 1,000 tons of toxic residue, which will be buried in landfills—prompting fears that the damage and public health threats in Bhopal will spread to Pithampur.

The Hindu reported that police used water cannons and batons to disperse some protesters who tried to march toward the facility where the waste was delivered on Wednesday.

In Bhopal, Rachna Dhingra, a coordinator of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, told The Guardian that the plan to move the contamination was a "farce and greenwashing publicity stunt to remove a tiny fraction of the least harmful waste," which had already been placed in containers and moved to a warehouse in 2005.

"There's still 1.2 million tons of poisonous waste leaching into the ground every day that they refuse to deal with," said Dhingra. "We can see for ourselves the birth defects and chronic health conditions. All this does is take the heat off the government and lets the U.S. corporations off the hook."

"It does nothing," said Dhingra, "to help the people in Bhopal who for decades have been seen as expendable."

Bhopal gas tragedy, 40 years on: Indian authorities finish moving toxic waste from site A

 03/01/2025 

FRANCE24-AFP

VIDEO
12:29 min
From the show

Forty years and one month after a deadly gas leak at a pesticide plant killed thousands in Bhopal, India, authorities say the last remaining toxic waste has been removed from the site. Activists say not enough measures are being taken to protect the environment and the population. Four decades after one of the world's worst industrial disasters, new generations of people are still grappling with its fallout and are demanding justice. Our correspondents report.

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